When I was in seminary in New Orleans, I worked at the checkout desk in the library.
There I had the opportunity to hear the English language spoken by young, aspiring Baptist ministers from all over the South.
It so happened that among our student body there was an Oriental student named Ok Ro Lee. He was short, well built, well kept -- and well-spoken. In fact, he spoke the English language better than 99% of the student body.
I just remarked to him one day, something like, "I certainly am impressed with the way you speak English."
Well, come to find out, this guy was the best student in the seminary when it came to learning the Hebrew language. In fact, I remember Dr. J. Hardee Kennedy, who was Dean after having taught Old Testament and Hebrew there for thirty years, looking out the window one day as Ok Ro walked across campus, and the look in Dr. K's eye was, "This is a great person in the service of the Lord!"
But what came across to me for the first time was that a person who cares enough to become proficient in a "foreign" language will probably be most proficient in the English language as well.
Rather than start preaching about the necessity of learning the English language, I will just say that I used to wish someone would just give George W. Bush a crash course in how to speak before an audience.
I have to think the same thing about Les Miles. What would be the hurt in someone just taking him aside, and saying, "Hey, Les, lets just go through about a three-month course here during the summer. I'll get a little blackboard, and we'll just learn about clauses, verbs, connecting words, etc."
) over the last couple of years, and I don't really remember hearing stuff like this his first year at LSU.
